The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-05-27
NEW YORK FOR WOMEN,
Taking the Places of Men in Many
Places.

Places.
When ! called at the stationer's the
ether day, to make a purchase, the clerk
handed me a piece Of paper marked 1926,
and | walked with it to q raised desk in
the middle Of the store and paid my bill to
a brunette young woman on a high revolv-
ing stool, with her hair deliberately pulled,
a rose in her tight little gray cloth basque,
and as rare a combination of pouting red
lips, full round cheeks and dainty turn-up
nose as ever gladdened the heart and eye
of nan. Across Broadway, in a busy drug
store, the same experience awaited me-
the same, except that here were two fash
ionably clad girls, fenced off from the pub
lie, as if they were as precious as the cash
they handled. In a beautiful parlor, such
as no man, except the owner of a vast pal
ace could have-a huge yaulted room, big
ger than most house sites, and carpeted.
frescoed and Uttered with hard wood fur
niture, l found the Office Of a great insur-
anee company. The president sat in one
corner, and twenty feet away, reading her
paper over her typewriter, sat a buxom
woman of30. At 4 great square table sat
the vice-president, and facing him, almost
knee to knee, was seated a fair young girl
writing rapidly as he talked to her. In the
center of the room by a desk that was sur
rounded by the desks of young men with
great ledgers sat another girl with a tum-
bier Of roses by her dimpled hands, and
wearing a dress that was as elaborate as
any street gown on Fifth avenue. Her
dainty touch evoked a telegraphic CHATTER
from a typewriter that shone like new
silver plate. as | wandered through the
group Of art cabinets that formed the offices
of a great monthly magazine up town,
found a corps of clerks and workers of
all sorts equally made up of men and wo-
men. In short, everywhere in the business
districts were and are young women.
Counting rooms wear the airs of parlors,
and Offices possess the atmosphere of draw
ing rooms. The men at their desks seem
nearly always newly barbered, and wear
dapper suits suca as used to be called
chest clothes before it came about that
we were always to be in and at our best.
The men wear smiles when they speak and
a deierential bend is growing habituaI
with them, for women are all around them
sharing in their tolls.
S'This is the era of If you please in
trade" a friend of mine commented. 1.-The
era of DO you hear me??' has followed
the period Of 'D--n you into oblivion"
The entrance of the women into the bus
mess world has been accomplished by an
almost unnoticed revolution. If there was
a rustic of their skirts as they came we did
not notice it. 1t is only now that these
skirts confront us everywhere We u that
the number of them is forced on our atten-
ton. Here is food for reflection. Here is
a new order of things-a change so gigantic
that the world (of New York at least) has
put on an altered face within ten years.
We have wondered to see a woman direct
a great operate enterprise. We have mar
veled at the fact that the best cattle re-
DDEttT III tue ulttd DtdlGS HlOuid bG ~
woman-Miss Middle Morgan of the New
York Times. We have seen with wonder
as well as pleasure the appointment of
women to official places in the government
of the city, but we have overlooked the sex
as a mass in noting the elevation OF a half
dozen of them as leaders. The fact is, the
entire sex feels the new leaven. Women
are no longer confined to the trades of
factory hands, counting houses and ser
wants. They are the secretaries, conf
Dental clerks, cashiers, accountants, can
vassers, and even the GRAND runners in
many of the principal places.
Scarcely any one has had more practical
experience with the new order of women
than Miss Mary F. Seymour, the head of
the Union Stenographic and Typewriting
Association of New York. A leader of the
new order herself, who began work as
a stenographer ten years ago, and has ex-
perienced the revolution in her own person.
She found that parents were timid at
first about allowing their daughters to as
sociate in business with men. 1t was i'm
possible to argue upon her deep-rooted po-
sition that the most danger to a girl is in
herself. and that those who are homes and
dignified and pure will not be harmed by
contact with the world il reasonable dis
erection in the choice Of work and position
is shown. She had to leave it to time to
demonstrate that the revolution which was
to put women in the offices of the COM
mercial world was to be a peaceful one
unattended with excitement or harm. This
was long ago proven to the satisfaction Of
most parents and employers, and now
women are generally welcomed to the
posts they seek to fill.
Miss Seymour thinks that manhood is
improved and polished and made gentle,
where the daily business life is spent in the
presence of one or more modest young
and she makes the very strong
point that the present feminine helpers OF
men in business are apt to be a superior
class of girls. They are the pioneers Of a
new system. she says, and AVE to be girls
of great strength Of character, independent
and coed. In this view of the matter she
says the new Older of things may be yet in
its governmental stage. for there is no quar-